- Money, I think money future,
a lot of people always ask the question,
how you determine what's money future?
My understanding, money future is anything that does not
put cash in your pocket
within 30, 60, 90 days?
- Yeah, it's a future--
It could be like six months,
it could be a year, two year gap, that's perfectly fine.
- To me personally, money now is anything I can get
money paid in 30, 60, 90 days.
- Yeah. That makes sense.
- That's my general threshold,
and the reason I have that threshold
is because let me ask you this question.
If your income stopped, could you survive 30, 60, 90 days?
If you don't have...
Some of you guys, your money now might be,
you gotta get paid this week,
'cause if you don't get paid,
you're not gonna survive the next week.
Okay?
- That's not a good scenario, by the way.
- Yeah. If you've got enough money
to survive for three months,
then you can stretch out your money now to three months.
- Yeah, exactly, make sense? Yep.
This, I like to use this all the time--
- That's so cool.
- [Dan] What I call the Batcave Moment. The Batcave Moment.
So all my team, like everybody knows,
I have Batcave Moment.
Right, they would know.
Desmond knows the best.
- [Desmond] Master Wayne.
- [Dan] What does that mean, what is a Batcave moment?
- [Desmond] It means he is in the Batcave, he is thinking,
he is on the whiteboard, he is strategizing...
and he is getting ready for a big pivot,
there's a bunch of big ideas coming up.
- Yeah, usually that is even beyond thinking time.
It's something else.
It's a very, very sacred and Zen moment for me,
right?
- Yes. What am I not seeing, or...
Yeah, you are asking those kind of questions.
- I have time that I block out for the Batcave Time, right.
So when I am in the Batcave, what it means is this:
These are my rules, right? I will get into it.
It's, I have...
I unplug the phone.
- Mhmm.
- I close the door.
Jenny knows, so I would know, so when I close the door,
she knows I am having a Batcave Moment,
I am in the office.
Unless the building is on fucking fire,
you do not come in, you do not call.
Like nothing. Okay, nothing.
No distraction, total... Zoned in.
It is almost like an athlete, right?
You're getting ready for a fight.
This is me battling with myself, right?
Batcave moment, they know, nobody bothers me.
I would have all my tea,
all that ready, right.
In my office, right.
Just, bathroom, that's it.
I am in there,
do not bother me.
That's it, eliminate all distractions.
Total...
Just no one distracts me. Okay.
So very very important.
All right. Very important.
And those are the times where I come up with
breakthrough strategist ideas,
that take us to a whole new level.
- Alex asked a question which I think it falls into this.
"Sifu, do we need a few minutes rest time
in between every task,
as I have packed schedules doing a few projects,
and they do go session by session without rest."
I totally understand that,
when I am closing on calls,
you gotta have that 15 minutes, yeah.
- That's why I recommend all my closers,
if you're closing on the phone, 45 minutes.
Give yourself that 15 minute break, right.
You may go to the bathroom, you may go grab a drink...
- Prepare, look at the next call, write notes...
- Prepare for the next call, look at the prospect,
look at the profile and things like that,
maybe do some research.
So I say, yeah, give yourself that buffer.
- Or even sometimes when you have a long day,
being able to walk up and down the stairs,
go outside, have some fresh air.
- Yeah, do something, stretch, like move around. Right?
- You had three, four bad calls that did not convert.
- Before you go into it again, right.
Yeah, do that. Stretch. Do whatever you need to do.
This is beyond the scope of this class,
but human beings were actually not designed
to work long hours. It's very interesting.
Like there is a lot of science, research,
I don't have time to go into all that,
but human beings were actually not designed...
You know how you'll notice,
if let's say you are in front of the computer...
- Yes
- See if this is true.
You are in front of the computer,
you are working on it,
let's say two, three, four hours straight, nonstop,
you notice how you lose focus and you get fatigue?
- Yeah
- Right? You notice, like you can see.
Like at first, like the first hour, but then...
Even you are doing the work, but after a few hours,
you are like...
you feel your productivity is going down,
after like four or five hours, right?
- Hey, how long we been here anyways?
[Computer] 37 minutes.
- What? 37 minutes, that's insane!
- Yeah, so...
As human beings, we are not designed to do that.
Our brain and all, we are actually designed...
The way that we work is more like a spring, right?
So work intensely, could be 40, 45 minutes, 50 minutes.
Break. Then do another 45 minute. Break.
Right. That's how I recommend you to schedule your time.
We're not designed to work five,
six hours straight and no break.
You know you are not.
Your productivity. Right?
You're not very productive after a few hours,
because we are not designed...
That's why we lose focus and you kind of,
you can see stuff blurry in front of you,
and you are not as sharp, you're not as clear...
- Or we start to look for distractions,
because you're feeling your work
is not as fun or productive.
So what do you do if a task
you are working on right now
takes you longer than expected?
Creating the copy as expected,
do you shift to the next task,
or do you pause the current task
and move to the second task?
- Oh, I love the question,
which leads to secret number five.
I'm going to circle back to the question.
Okay.
Time blocking.
Time blocking, blocking out the time.
So I want to ask you this question, okay?
So imagine you have an appointment with your doctor.
Imagine you have an appointment with your doctor, right?
It could be eye doctor,
could be your back doctor, doesn't matter.
Imagine an appointment with your doctor.
Are you gonna make that appointment if nothing comes up?
- Right, yes Sir.
- Yeah, you're gonna make the appointment, right?
Very simple.
So time blocking, what it means is
making an appointment with yourself.
- Yourself, right.
- Right? So why wouldn't you make appointments
with the most important person in your life,
and that is yourself?
Instead of letting other people dictate
how you should use your time,
your inbox, other people's agenda,
block out a time for yourself.
- Stephen's really good at this.
Stephen, our team copywriter, director.
- Time blocking. Yup. Time blocking.
- Yep. Very good at this.
- You would make and keep an appointment with a doctor.
Make and keep that with yourself.
So block out a time, hey, you know what,
I'm gonna block out this time to work on money now.
I'm gonna block out this time
to work on money in the future.
I'm gonna block out this time to work out and exercise.
Right, if you don't...
That's the problem,
if you don't block it out, ain't gonna happen.
Right? If you say, oh, you know,
after a long day of work, I guess I will go to the gym,
and then you feel like, I don't want to go.
I'm tired, I don't want to go, right?
- Oh!
- Right?
Versus if you make it a time, you know what,
from 6 to 7, I am going to work out.
Work out. Boom. Just put that...
- And then have an alarm in there, have your calendar...
- Yeah, just block out that time with yourself, right?
Now what happens, when you actually
make an appointment with yourself...
Example, like say for creating content,
let's say for making videos, right?
- Yes.
- I block out the time.
Tired or not,
inspired or not,
it doesn't matter.
You block out that time, you're gonna do it.
I schedule time to think,
because if you don't schedule time to think,
there is no thinking time,
you're just busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
So I would actually block at a time and say,
hey, this is the time I am going to block out...
I am going to think.
Right? How many entrepreneurs do that?
Very few. Very few.
Right?
I keep those appointments with myself,
just as I would keep an appointment with someone else.
You are very very important.
Do that. Once you block out a time with yourself...
- Yep.
- Right, with yourself...
Here's the mistake that a lot of people make.
Okay, they let other people dictate their schedule.
- Right.
- Right. Now...
Imagine, would you give your wallet to a stranger
to hold onto?
- No.
- But remember in this example I gave you?
The time bank.
Then why would you give your time to people,
to let them dictate how to use your time?
You wouldn't give your wallet to a stranger,
then why would you give your time to a stranger?
- Right.
- If a telemarketer calls you and say,
Hey, man, you know,
I've got a boat cruise package for you, man, like...
Dude, you're wasting my time.
Period.
Right? That's the thing.
So the biggest mistake that you could make
is you have no end time.
- Yes.
- So when you have to-do lists on your agenda,
you just say, you know what,
today I am going to work on these couple of things.
But you have no end time.
You are not training yourself to be productive.
- There is no urgency...
- So the question is,
let's say you block out your time in terms of
a 15 minute increment, one hour increment,
30 minute increment,
Doesn't matter, whatever works for you.
You're not finishing...
Let's say after 30 minutes, oh, I'm only halfway done.
- Yeah.
- Don't keep dragging on.
Train yourself, turn it off.
Go to the next thing.
You can book another time with yourself to work on that.
But unless you do that,
you're training your mind to work slow.
Because you're always procrastinating the length.
Right?
You think, 'cause you are training your mind,
hey, you know, nothing happens if it just drags on,
I thought it was going to take an hour.
Now it ends up taking three hours.
When you do this, when you train your mind
that there is an end time,
you are making an appointment with yourself,
I only blocked out an hour for this.
I will get it done, period.
And what happens is,
now the time gets shorter and shorter and shorter.
So you need to be okay and have the discipline and say,
hey, I am going to cut this off. This is...
And if you're always missing...
Always not ending it on time,
it means that probably the way you set your time,
you're not being realistic.
- Yeah. - Right?
It means that the tasks require more skills than
maybe the skills you have right now.
Let me give you the perfect example.
Let's say you're closing on someone.
You're closing, and you block out the time
for a 30 minute call.
But every single time, it goes over.
It takes you an hour,
or maybe even 70 minutes to close the sale.
- Right.
- But you block out always 30 minutes.
But your skill is not good enough for you to close that...
- In 30 minutes.
You're not there yet.
But you will get there.
Give yourself one hour.
So then, just do that for one hour.
And then eventually, you say, you know what?
Let me shorten it to 55 minutes.
50 minutes. 45.
Then you get better and better,
until the point you can do your 30 minute.
So your capabilities,
your skills match up with your expectations,
then you can do your 30 minute increment.